Parents provide feedback during New Hanover County Schools budget town hall

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The New Hanover County Board of Education is working on its next budget, and on Wednesday evening, it asked for input from both parents and staff.

The board held a budget town hall to allow staff an opportunity to share how the district is doing and to get feedback from parents.

A presentation was given that showed New Hanover County ranks high among other counties in the state in a variety of areas, including testing scores for end-of-grade subjects and ACT scores.

But the town hall was not all good news as Superintendent Christopher Barnes spoke about areas of concern for the district, like a lack of per-pupil funding and the continued decline in the number of students in the district.

Parent Nancy Laffey said she was surprised to hear some of the issues plaguing the district.

“First of all, my daughter, her math class has 35 students in it,” Laffey said. “That’s a lot for the teacher and that’s a lot for the kids. I was also really dismayed that we were talking about possibly not funding the pre-school programs.”

Parents and staff were asked to leave post-it notes naming their biggest concerns, some of which included a lack of pre-k funding, providing employees with a living wage, and school and classroom safety.

Barnes said he will hold similar town halls with principals in the coming weeks as they continue to finalize the budget.